Broker: Help Georgians, expand Medicaid

The election is now over and even John Boehner has declared Obamacare (the Affordable Care Act) to be the law of the land.

Georgia Gov. Nathan Deal simply can’t seem to accept that fact and that failure could well leave 600,000 Georgians without health coverage.

At this juncture, the governor has indicated that Georgia can’t afford to participate. He claims the state simply does not have the money and there are other priorities in the budget.

What could be a more basic priority of state government than making healthcare available to its citizens?

Look at the economics involved.

The feds are willing to fund 100 percent of Medicaid expansion for most low-income individuals whose income is less than 138 percent of federal poverty level.

A family of three with an income of $26,344 or less would be eligible for coverage. Federal funding will cover the first three years, 2014 through 2016. After that, the feds will continue to pick up 90 percent of the tab.

For an investment of $2.5 billion over 10 years by the state, $33 billion would flow from federal coffers to fund coverage for Georgians in need of it.

Georgia will spend about $400 per year for each Georgian who gets coverage and that gets matched by $5,500 spent each year by the feds.

And that doesn’t even take into account the $726 million the state will save in uncompensated care.

Were Medicaid to expand, some 600,000 Georgians who currently lack coverage would have it.

Think about what that means in terms of people getting preventative care they never could previously afford.

We all know that preventative care and early treatment avoids expensive care down the road, which is often provided in our local hospital emergency rooms, the most expensive place for it.

And I don’t know a lot of county governments and local doctors and hospitals who want to continue to pay for and provide for those who can’t afford it when there is another option.

Through the expansion, Georgians will be more financially secure and healthier. That’s worth something too, but tough to put a dollar figure on.

At this juncture, eight states have said they are not going to expand Medicaid. All but one is from the Deep South.

They are the same ones that rank at the bottom for school achievement, infant mortality, poverty, teen pregnancy and all the usual conditions that keep us poor and less competitive.

Why can’t Gov. Deal break from the naysayers and Obama-haters and simply give 600,000 Georgians a chance to live better and healthier lives?

If he has a better plan, Georgia is anxious to hear about it.

Bill Broker is a Savannah attorney. This was written as a personal opinion, not as a representative of Georgia Legal Services, where he is employed.